This invention relates to the art of flight conveyors and more particularly to an orienting conveyor serving to orient elongate cylindrical articles with the axis of the articles perpendicular to the direction of movements of the articles along the conveyor, with the bottom surface of the oriented articles at the end of their movement along the flight conveyor lying in the plane of the upper surface of the flight conveyor, so that the articles may be discharged laterally with respect to the direction of conveyor movement, and will be subject to minimal jarring.
A variety of conveyors have been evolved to facilitate the packaging of cylindrical articles, such for example, as groups of stacked cups or the like. Thus, such stacks of cups or the like cylindrical articles have in the past been moved along a flight conveyor to a point where a pusher member may discharge the stack of cups from the conveyor into a packaging container, such as an envelope or the like.
In order to insure maintenance of these stacks of cups in a desired orientation with the axis of the stack of cups lying perpendicular to the direction of movement of the cups along the conveyor, the conveyor has been designed with flights separated a distance slightly less than the diameter of the cups, so that the stack of cups will fall partially between the space between adjacent flights to orient the stacks of such cups with the axes thereof, perpendicular to the direction of movement of the conveyor.
A problem arises when it is desired to discharge the oriented stacks of cups from the flight conveyor into the desired packaging envelope, in that discharge is generally effected by means of a pusher member arranged at the end of travel of the cups along the flight conveyor. However, the stack of cups having fallen partially between adjacent flights cannot be moved laterally from the conveyor, since the side linkages between flights interfere with lateral movement of the cup stack.
Additionally, when the stacks which have been oriented by falling between adjacent flights hit the conveyor end plate, they will tend to become disoriented on striking the end plate of the conveyor prior to discharge, due to their movement out from between adjacent flights.